Waymo has picked the Toyota bZ4X as the next vehicle in its robotaxi lineup, and the first cars are headed to Japan. Toyota will build a custom version of the electric SUV with the Waymo Driver integrated on its own production line, and a test fleet starts operating in 2027. The October 30 announcement is the first vehicle to emerge from a partnership the two companies began in 2025.
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The 2027 date covers a test fleet that validates the vehicle, a step short of public service. Waymo released no sensor specifications, unit volumes or cost figures alongside it, so the size of the eventual order is unknown.
Takaoka plant and the factory-fitted Waymo Driver
Waymo’s announcement of the bZ4X partnership says Toyota will assemble the vehicles at its Takaoka plant in Aichi Prefecture, and that Waymo’s autonomous hardware will be installed in the same facility rather than bolted on at a separate retrofit site. That is a different manufacturing path from most of Waymo’s current fleet, which arrives as a finished car and then goes through conversion. Building the driver into the line is how a robotaxi maker gets to volume without a second round of handling for every vehicle.
The bZ4X Waymo described is modified for passengers. The list includes extra rear legroom, automatic doors, a power liftgate and ambient lighting, all aimed at making the back seat easier to enter and more comfortable for people who will never touch a steering wheel. Toyota board member and executive vice president Hiroki Nakajima said safety technology makes the biggest difference when it reaches as many people as possible, and that no single company can achieve the goal of zero traffic accidents alone.
Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov framed the deal around the same goal, saying Toyota’s commitment to zero traffic accidents resonates deeply with Waymo, and pointing to the company’s claim of being up to 20 times safer than human drivers on serious-injury crashes.
Tokyo first, then the United Kingdom
Japan is the starting point because Waymo already has a commercial plan there. In September the company said it was targeting fully driverless rides for public riders in Tokyo in 2027 with taxi operator Nihon Kotsu and the ride-hailing app GO, and its Tokyo announcement describes a service that begins with an initial fleet and grows to about 100 vehicles. Riders could book through either app. The timeline depends on approval from national and local authorities, and Waymo cars have been testing in the city since 2025 with trained Nihon Kotsu crew supervising.
Waymo chief executive Tekedra Mawakana called Tokyo the next chapter in Waymo’s expansion, and Nihon Kotsu’s Yasuharu Wakabayashi said the service would help address future driver shortages while running alongside human-driven taxis. Waymo describes Nihon Kotsu as an operator with nearly 100 years of taxi experience, which is the local fleet-handling knowledge the company needs and Toyota’s factory does not supply. Waymo also claims its driverless cars are over 15 times safer than human drivers, a figure that regulators in Japan will weigh for themselves.
The United Kingdom and unnamed other Waymo markets follow in later years, and the announcement attaches no dates to them. Electrek’s report on the deal notes that the Tokyo service and the bZ4X test fleet share a year but not a promise: nothing published says the bZ4X will be the vehicle carrying those first paying passengers.
Vehicle supply and the other cars Waymo is adding
Electrek argues that vehicle supply is Waymo’s main constraint, and the rest of the fleet picture supports it. Most of Waymo’s American fleet is still built on Jaguar’s electric SUV, a model Jaguar no longer produces. Waymo is adding the Zeekr-built Ojai van and the Hyundai Ioniq 5, and a February report said Hyundai was in talks to supply up to 50,000 Ioniq 5 robotaxis by 2028. Against that, the service now handles more than 500,000 paid rides a week across 15 metro areas, and it picked Toronto as its first Canadian city with riders targeted for 2028.
Toyota brings manufacturing scale and a vehicle with a track record, including a 2022 recall of the first bZ4X batch over a wheel issue and a U.S. starting price of $34,900 for the consumer model. Toyota and Pony.ai began mass-producing bZ4X-based robotaxis in China earlier in 2026, so the platform is already being used for driverless service elsewhere.
Personally owned vehicles remain unconfirmed
Electrek says the personal-vehicle angle remains unconfirmed, with no concrete product yet. A robotaxi program can be judged by fleet counts and ride volumes, while a consumer car that drives itself would need its own safety case, pricing and regulatory path, none of which the announcement describes.
The companies’ April 2025 announcement was a preliminary agreement to explore collaboration, including autonomous technology for cars that people own. The new announcement says that work continues, along with road-safety projects involving Woven by Toyota, Toyota’s software arm. No product, date or price has been attached to the personal-vehicle idea, which leaves the open question of whether a Toyota with the Waymo Driver will ever be something a customer can buy rather than ride in.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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